1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hand held grip to provide more ergonomically accommodating use of portable phone devices and the like.
2. Background of the Invention
Portable telephones or hand-held computers with telephone functions and the similar wireless devices, hereinafter referred to as portable phone devices or potable wireless phone devices (PPDs), have come to be essential communications tools in everyday life. Increasingly, people are utilizing these portable wireless phone devices far more often than the older, terrestrial counterpart. In fact a greater and greater number of phone users are forgoing the traditional home land or terrestrial line for their homes for any number of reasons and instead using the portable phone devices as a primary telephone. These users have come to rely exclusively on their portable phone devices for their personal telephonic communication needs.
One of the advantages to the portable phone device its portability. These units are designed to fit in the hand or palm of the user and then typically fold to an even smaller footprint for storage and transport. The device itself can become difficult for a typical user to grasp especially for long periods of time. The competing design requirements for small portable footprints for the portable phone devices are counter to the ergonomic design requirements for comfortable use of home phones, like those of existing terrestrial handsets that are more easily held in the hand and to the head for long periods of time.
In addition to the ergonomic issues, the more modern portable phone devices often come bundled with additional functions and features. These features often include web browsers, calendaring, and electronic mail. In addition to wireless connections to update and operate these features, these devices can also typically be inserted into a “hot-sync” cradle, which is tethered to a desktop PC to connect to and update features like calendars and address books and the like. During the “sync” operation typically both databases get updated with any information that was added to either or one of the databases may be set to overwrite since the last synchronization procedure. This ability to coordinate this information is critical in reducing redundant data entry and possible errors in the information from such entry.
The phone typically also includes volatile memory storage devices, such as RAM. Information stored in the volatile memory may be lost if the power level of the battery of the portable phone device falls below a certain level. Currently, cradles and similar devices and power cables typically provide a hard wired power source to allow for recharging of the portable phone device. However, these cradles are generally not designed to overcome the ergonomic deficiencies of the portable phone devices as they are themselves not hand held devices, but either car operated or desk mounted retainers or chargers. Ideally, a grip having these functions when not in operation would provide a greater functionality to for the portable telephone device.
Furthermore, increasingly portable phone devices and the network providers are turning to local area wireless networks, like those provided by wi-fi internet access points or “hot spots” to provide updates for these features as well as optional telephone services through the internet. The telephone services being provided in such a manner having a reduced billing cost relative to air time on a cellular phone network. Additionally, downloadable “rich” media, such as videos, photos, and games and the like, have been more frequently utilized and accessed via a portable phone device. These can be accessed via a more cost effective network access rather than the cellular network. Access while the portable phone device is in use and while the portable phone device is not in use to a network like the internet and additional storage capacity to contain downloads to be uploaded to the phone would be beneficial in the management of downloads for the personal phone device. To date no cradle or grip or holder provides such access or the ability to move data in a way that would also incorporate improved ergonomic functioning of the portable phone device as a telephone.
In each instance, a need exists to provide better ergonomic utility to the portable telephone devices when they are being used in a non-traditional fashion—when they are not being carried as a wireless option but instead are being utilized in a more traditional fashion similar to terrestrially wired telephones that are part of the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). Such a device should incorporate the features to facilitate the function of additional applications that the portable telephone or phone device possesses. Additionally, it should embrace new and developing technologies for interfacing the portable phone device with alternative networks, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the like to reduce the costs of use of the portable phone devices and provide cost effective access to high bandwidth applications, like games, movies and the like.
Therefore, a need exists to provide an ergonomic, hand held grip that provides ease of use for portable telephone devices for extended periods of time. The ergonomic hand held grip should also provide additional functionality to the portable telephone device, such as but certainly not limited to recharging of the portable telephone device and/or “hot syncing” and similar functions. Additionally, the ergonomic hand held grip should also include optional hardware to allow the grip to act as an alternative network access point, such as a Wi-Fi network access point or “hot spot”.